Alamo Early 20th Century Jericho

[cje]

I was looking at various pictures of the Alamo which showed the near destruction of the Long Barracks and the connecting wall of that reaches from the Long Barracks to the Church. Then I looked at several pictures of the Alamo after the "reconstruction" of this area and the Convent Yard. Are there any before and after design drawings that clearly show what was done? The West facing wall of the now one story level of the Long Barracks has evidence of doors cut by the U.S. Army as well as evidence of doors put in when it was used as a store by several owners in the later part of the 19th Century. There are a "few" arched windows and perhaps doors that were in place during the siege. Also when you look at the Long Barracks when it is being torn apart, it seems like one long wall, two stories tall. The walls or structure behind it as you move towards the Convent Yard are not there. The "reconstruction" adds another wall and then an arched wall to the present structure. In addition we have a "new" wall that outlines the Convent Yard only broken or open in one spot so that Alamo visitors can get to the Gift Shop and Park behind the Alamo Church. I assume that the stone used to build the Convent Yard wall and the other two walls had to come from much of the leveling of parts of the Lon Barracks. A picture of the two story Long Barracks would be nice of what it looks like before the U.S. Army remodeled it and later the various stores were put into place. We really only have the Church today and a small part of the Long Barracks remaining of the Alamo unless you look at digs that unearthed small parts of the West Wall where the 18 Lb. Cannon was located if I am corrected. Pictures of the Alamo from 1900 up to the present show much of this activity. I'd like to see design drawings (if that is such a name to call them) of both before and after all of this happened. Thanks. CJE

[Rich Curilla]

This is Jacob Edmond Blake's 1845 drawing of the Long Barrack and Church. It is the only accurately done drawing of it before it was revamped into the U.S. Quartermaster's Depot a few years later.

Below is Mary Maverick's alleged 1837 drawing which includes a portion of the Long Barrack.

Attachments:

[Rich Curilla]

Here is a comparison between Mary Maverick's "1837" drawing (bottom) and one by Lysander Wells, dated variously as 1838 or 1839. To me, the Maverick drawing is a poor but direct copy of the Wells'. Where his details are precise, her copy shows vagueness, as if she weren't quite sure what he had drawn and was certainly not looking at the Alamo herself. This, of course, conflicts with the supposed dates of authorship. However, Mary Maverick, by her own words in her memoirs, assure us that she first "stood upon the soil of the Republic of Texas, about New Years day, 1838," and she says that she arrived in San Antonio on June 15, 1838. Thus, the 1837 date must be in error.

I conclude that the Lysander Wells drawing is the real McCoy, drawn by him while sitting in front of the Alamo, and that the other drawing is a well-meaning copy of his by Mary Maverick at some later point.

Attachments:

[Rich Curilla]

This is the 1848 drawing by Lt. Edward Everett showing the just-completed U.S. Quartermaster's Depot revamp of the Long Barrack. Compare it to the Jacob Edmond Blake drawing below.

George Nelson's wonderful book The Alamo: An Illustrated History makes the architectural lineage of the Alamo very clear. The only picture he does not include is the Mary Maverick.

[Rich Curilla]

What is probably safe to say regarding what is there today vs. the original is that the west wall of the Long Barrack Museum is mostly original construction, and three or four of the openings are most likely original or partly original. The second story you see in the tear-down photos of the early 20th. century is however that of the 1848-built Quartermaster's second story. It is certainly possible that the southernmost portion of that second story then was all or part of the original remaining convento second story (the hospital in 1836). No part of the back (east) wall, partition walls or arcade are original, but may have been built out of stone from the razed walls possibly but not necessarily on their original footings. And, for me, the jury's still out on the south connecting wall between the Long Barrack and the church as to how much of that is original.